A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas | Book Review

A thrilling, seductive new series from New York Timesbestselling author Sarah J. Maas, blending Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

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My Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding)

Book Information

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children

Genre: Young-adult (verging on new-adult) fiction, fantasy, romance

Page Count: 416

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 1619634449

This book was used for the Popsugar challenge: A book by an author you love but have never read.

Hi! I recently (or not-so-recently, I can’t remember) finished reading this book, for #JuneAndRosesReadAlong (a June read along hosted by Josie’s Book Corner & Bibliophile Gathering). I’ve been wanting to read this book for a long time, so I’m so glad I finally got to read it! It definitely did not disappoint!

Quick Summary

A retelling of Beauty and the Beast, A Court of Thorns and Roses follows Feyre, a nineteen-year-old huntress who, one day, as a consequence of killing a wolf in the forest, is taken to Prythian, a dangerous, magical land, by a beast-like creature. Finding out soon enough that her captor was an immortal fae named Tamlin, Feyre finds that the icy feelings towards fae she once had had become into a fiery passion, even love. Now there is a much larger threat looming ahead of them, and if it isn’t contained and stopped, could destroy the faerie lands and the faes, forever. Can Feyre find a way to stop it?

Plot

A plot of mystery, romance and danger, how could I not love it? And if you love these kind of stuff, you’ll love it too! From the very first page I was dragged into this world, into this enchanting world with magic and faeries, and the plot was filled with suspense, not to mention romance! And I love Tamlin, so you know… I’m pretty biased, but still. The plot was great.

What I really praise and love, is that Sarah J. Maas took a beloved fairy tale, and not only brought the fairytale back to life, she recreated it into something magical and superb, one with faeries! Just, wow. Once again, Sarah J. Maas blew me away.

I will mention though that in middle-ish, there are times where Feyre isn’t necessarily doing anything important, as she is simply walking through the estate or something like that. Some people might find this boring, or had a negative impact on their reading experience, but I kind of slid past it, you know? It’s not like a character’s supposed to be doing something 24/7. Plus, the action later on and in-between these scenes made up for it.

Characters

Oh, the characters. I could go on and on. Feyre was great, first of all. Loyal, brave, supports her family, stubborn. I know, what you’re all thinking; ‘Oh, where have we seen that before? Hmm, I wonder.’ Nonetheless, I still found Feyre to be a fresh, new protagonist, albeit sometimes a bad decision-maker. These little flaws made her less perfect, and less perfect made her more relatable, so I loved her! Especially since I loved her sense of humour! She was witty, sassy and had a lot of spunk. Sure, maybe she was a bit typical, but she, and the rest of the characters made the book awesome, and that’s what matters.

So, next we have Feyre’s captor and love interest, Tamlin, a swoony, mysterious and misunderstood fae. Tamlin, was just amazing. He was a dark and mysterious character, put in an unfavourable light in reason of what Feyre thought of faes, but who we later find to be a caring, thoughtful person. Him and Feyre are so cute together! I ship it.

But that brings us to the other potential love interest, bad-boy fae Rhysand. There’s technically no love triangle yet (note the ‘yet’) but there will be, I’m almost 100% sure. But hey, I must admit I like Rhysand! I know there are people who hate him, but I just find him really interesting. *Sigh.* Why must I always be interested in the character who the protagonist will most probably not be choosing? But still. I find Rhysand to be a great character. Anyone out there who agrees with me?

Now, the character list wouldn’t be complete without Lucien, Tamlin’s emissary. He was a great supporting character! I loved him, he was just such a useful and interesting addition to the character cast. Underneath his snark and attitude, he really is a loyal person who cares. And I love his sense of humour! (Noticing a trend yet?) The banter between him and Feyre was very entertaining as well!

“Do you ever stop being so serious and dull?”
“Do you ever stop being such a prick?” I snapped back.
Dead–really, truly, I should have been dead for that.
But Lucien grinned at me. “Much better.”

Ha! Loved that. 🙂 Go Feyre! You tell ’em. (Lucien, you rule too, don’t worry.) How can you not love a character with sass like that?

Writing Style

I absolutely love Sarah J. Maas’s writing! Just like in her Throne of Glass series, the world-building was so on-point, I felt like I was in the book itself, and that was amazing!! Every scene I read, I could see it clearly myself, and I can struggle with that quite a bit. She depicted her scenes with a beautiful style and prose, and through it all, I could still see the underlying personality of Feyre, which I loved. Often authors drown out the voice of the character when writing, filling it with words the character would never use, words that do not suit the character. These little things change the character, and I’m so glad this didn’t happen in this book.

I also have to mention the humour! This partly ties in with the characters, but I loved the little bits and tidbits of sarcasm, banter, and witty remarks between the characters.

Overall…

I should’ve expected this book would be this amazing, since this is Sarah J. Maas we’re talking about, and I did, but she did so much more, once again! You know a book is great when you just can’t seem to be able to put it down, and that’s what happened to me. You want a great plot, cool characters, a swoony (and steamy) romance, and simply love Beauty and the Beast, and Sarah J. Maas? Then my question to you is, “What on earth are you waiting for?!” Exactly. You aren’t. ‘Cause you’re picking up the book right not. Right? RIGHT? Good. (I’m not crazy, I swear.) Although, for readers a bit more young and who prefer only young-adult however, I caution to wait a bit, as this book does have few new-adult themes. The romance scenes especially.

So, you want to eat roses? Too bad. You can eat A Court of Thorns AND Roses though, and that’s ten-times better. I promise.

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45 thoughts on “A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas | Book Review”

I believe this one’s a retelling? To be honest, I still haven’t read a book that’s been retold from a fairytale and this one sounds great but idnsmkdkjd I just can’t deal with love triangles and from what I’ve read, it looks like there’ll be one soon. I might pick up A Court of Thorns and Roses, any other retelling recommendations? [:

Yep! A Beauty and the Beast one, specifically. Well this book is pretty love-triangle free, and the book wraps things up pretty good, so I daresay you would enjoy this as a stand-alone! But there are definitely other retelling recommendations such as the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and although I haven’t read this book yet, Enchanted by Alethea Kontis also seems like a great fairytale retelling. Fairytale retellings are great, so I hope you enjoy these books if you decide to read them! 🙂

Thanks! I’m surprised that it hasn’t been picked up by anybody yet, I would’ve thought it was unavailable. Lucky for you though, you can get it without the messy trouble of holds hehe. 🙂 Hope you enjoy it!

Wonderful review, Analee! I still haven’t been able to get my copy yet since I haven’t been to the bookstore. And forget about getting at the library, there’s already so many holds on it (no surprise, though). And don’t forget to add your usual star graphic thing for your rating! 🙂

To be completely honest, I’m excited to see the love triangle! This is strange because usually I would dread this sort of thing! But Im warming up to Rhysand and I want to know more about him. In the end, this is a beauty and the beast retelling and I’m sure Maas will stick with Feylin as the couple. I ship it so much.

That’s a very interesting way to look at it! I actually do see and agree with where you’re coming from, Rhysand is such an interesting character that it will be so cool to see him and Feyre get to know eachother better. I also totally ship Feylin though, and I’m sure that they will be the endgame! (Unless there’s a plot twist… you never know!)

Yay! Great review! I’ve just scheduled mine to be posted tomorrow. 😀 I hope you’re wrong about the whole love triangle though; boy do I hate those! Rhysand is an interesting character though, so I might forgive Sarah J. Maas if she does let them have their love triangle in the sequel. 😉

Thanks! And that’s great, I’ll check that out soon! 🙂 Ha ha I know several readers are wary of the love triangle, but like you said, Rhysand is such an interesting character! I’m intrigued to see how it will all play out. Of course, I have enough faith in Sarah J. Maas that she will put Feyre and Tamlin together, but still. I don’t think this love triangle will bother me lol. ❤

Thanks! 🙂 I’m actually intrigued about this love triangle to-be. Rhysand is such an interesting and appealing character, and I’m sure Sarah will put Feyre with Tamlin in the end, so I think I’m going to be okay with this one. ❤

I know right? I’m curious as to see whether that’s Sarah J. Maas’s intention, and if she’ll succeed in making us Tamlin girls into Rhysand lovers, LOL!! After all, after Shatter Me, I’m no longer sure about which team I’m on in a love triangle story. 😉

I didn’t read your review currently I’m avoiding them everywhere but I can see it was one of the epic read for you. I’m gonna read it at the end of this month so I’m avoiding spoilers cause I’m so excited to read it 🙂

Don’t worry, my review is spoiler-free! (Unless you consider knowing the names of a few characters and a warning that there will be a love triangle in the next book a spoiler, which I don’t.) But either way, I loved it, and I hope you enjoy it as well once you read it! ❤ Curious to see whether you feel the same way as I do. 🙂

OMG!! Absolutely AWESOME review!! I’ve been wanting to read this one for quite a while now, and your review has made me want to get to NOW! Lol. But seriously, the characters do sound very interesting, and the plot has fae in it, which is a HUGE plus, I think!

I thought this was a YA novel, and I prefer YA to NA. I’m not much into the New Adult genre. Still, there are so many rave reviews of this book, I still want to read it!!

Aww thank you so much! Your opinion matters a lot. ❤ I'm glad my review is urging you to read the book! It really is amazing.
Yes, exactly, the characters were great, and Sarah J. Maas's retelling incorporated fae into a classic fairytale perfectly! 😀
I also thought this was a YA novel when first hearing about it, and I agree, I prefer YA to NA. There were a few steamy scenes (the main character is 19, after all!), but I think overall the plot and world make the book worth it. 😉
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the book once you read it! No problem, I'm glad you liked it. XD Thank you for your lovely comment, Mari!

[…] A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is, as most of you know by now, a fairytale retelling (a Beauty and the Beast one, at that!) and it’s definitely one of the most refreshing and unique retellings I’ve read! Incorporating faelore into a classic fairytale, ACOTAR is amazing. (You can check out my review on it here.) […]